Washington Post lauds Ron Sims

In the heat of last year’s King County executive race, somebody asked me what it was about Republican challenger David Irons that made me come down on him so hard, and I answered without hesitation, simply… that he wasn’t Ron Sims.

Sims is without a doubt my favorite politician in the state for any number of reasons, but mostly for a rare willingness to expend political capital. What some critics decry as arrogance, I applaud as leadership, even when I occasionally disagree with him on policy. Ron Sims clearly believes in what he is doing as county executive, and I believe in Ron Sims.

Ron Sims, the county executive in Washington state’s King County, believes government’s job is “to help create wealth more efficiently.” That view comes naturally to a leader of the entrepreneurial Seattle region, which has improved the nation’s experience of everything from technology to coffee.

I can’t say that Dionne is one of my favorite writers, but he’s certainly one of the most experienced and best respected political columnists in the nation. In this capacity Dionne meets an awful lot of politicians, and for a local elected to draw such glowing coverage is truly a feather in Sims’ cap… though not surprising. Most people who have the opportunity to meet with Sims come away as impressed as Dionne by his passion and dedication.

Meeting Sims and reading the Urban Institute manuscript provided a bracing reminder that there is an authentic search going on outside of conventional politics for the new ideas to animate a new political era — precisely what Democrats are supposed to be seeking.

Sims is a bluff, warm man who gets excited about problem-solving. A Democrat, he will talk your ear off about the King County government’s effort to work with local employers in creating a new heath care delivery system. The idea is that government can be a catalyst for negotiation, research and reform and save both public and private employers money while producing better health outcomes for consumers.

It fits with Sims’s larger idea that government, far from being a drain on the nation’s wealth, ought to “provide the social infrastructure and the physical infrastructure to help wealth be created.” He said during lunch here the other day that Democrats should run under the slogan: “Rebuild America.”

Sims notes that after World War II, the federal government helped unleash an era of exceptional growth through investments in schools, interstate highways and higher education. Both India and China are “making intelligent moves for economic growth” and the United States cannot stand by and watch. “You need people and brains to create an economy,” he says. “You need transportation to move an economy. And you need an environmental policy to create clean air and clean water.”

Sims’s idea reminds Democrats that a commitment to active government is not simply about redistributing wealth. It is also rooted in the historically sound insight that effective government has always been essential to robust economic growth. Government, in the Sims formulation, should be a dynamic player in our nation’s economic life.

What Dionne describes — what Ron Sims embodies — is the very essence of American liberalism… a profound belief in the power of government to improve the lives of all its citizens. It is an optimistic political philosophy grounded in the American experience

While it has become fashionable for neo-conservative cynics to simply dismissively ridicule us liberals, I find their nearly blind, deterministic faith in the power of unfettered markets to be sad, simplistic, and willfully ignorant of history. It was under the sway of liberalism that America climbed out of the Great Depression, defeated the Axis powers, and grew into the greatest economic, military and political power in the history of the world. It is under the neo-con policies of the Bush administration and our Republican congress that America risks collapsing into a debtor nation and a failed empire.

Dionne concludes that Sims’ “practical focus on government’s role in wealth creation” is both “good public policy” and “good politics.” It also happens to be backed up by history.

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The article mentions reforming child support laws. I wonder if Ron will suggest reducing the crushing burden of child support to the girlz who run the Feminist Utopia of Washington. I’m holding my fucking breath…

Sims is great in person, and gives speeches that are real barn burners. His bravery in getting out in front on tax reform in this state is to be commended.

And Goldy, for a center-left national columnist, E.J. is pretty good. We should be thankful in these times of corporate plutocracy that folks such as he get any space at all in the “trying to not be left wing at all costs” national media.

Ass@2 – I agree. Sims is a real leader when it comes to tax reform. Screwing the rich by stealing more of their money shows the kind of “out of the box” thinking that’s really needed around here, and also illustrates his razor sharp political instincts.

Any political philosophy that questions the legitimacy of the 1% of plutocrats who run this country to rule it will run inro much opposition in the media and the political arena. Finding a way to succeed despite these challenges is the progressive task.

This will no doubt put the racist republicans into a tizzy. Nothing they hate more than seeing a black man get national praise. Bush, Cheney, Frist and the rest of the cabal will probably put their white hoods on tonight and go riding’ looking for Sims. Hopefully they put WHAT A DICK Cheney in charge of the firearms during the ride!

Is Ann Coulter still licensed to practice law in any state? She should be disbarred for advocating genocide. She lacks the integrity and character expected of a lawyer. Oh well, if she’s convicted of felony voting fraud in Florida, they can disbar her for that. I wonder if she’s double-voting in New York? I wouldn’t put it past her.

“The article mentions reforming child support laws. I wonder if Ron will suggest reducing the crushing burden of child support to the girlz who run the Feminist Utopia of Washington. I’m holding my fucking breath… Comment by Mark The Redneck— 2/21/06 @ 10:16 pm”

Are you the same Mark the Redneck who brags about making tons of money and driving a gas-guzzling SUV, or are there two Mark the Rednecks posting here?

Or do you like a system better where a household making $25,000 a year pays 17% of their income in state and local taxes, while a household making $200,000 a year pays 4% of their income in state and local taxes? The latter is what we have now.

Hey Mark, didn’t you know that Washington’s child support schedule only goes up to $7,000 a month? Income above that is effectively exempt from child support, unless you misbehave in court and piss off the judge.

“I think MTR is a little pissed that he came inside some little girl when he was 19, and now he doesn’t want to pay for his “mistake”. Please, please, please discover condoms. Comment by Belltowner— 2/22/06 @ 12:06 am”

Mr. Goldstein says “Ron Sims, the county executive in Washington state’s King County, believes government’s job is “to help create wealth more efficiently.” That view comes naturally to a leader of the entrepreneurial Seattle region, which has improved the nation’s experience of everything from technology to coffee.”

Ron Sims doesn’t even know how to turn on his own computer! And he doesn’t even know what is in a latte. If this fool was so adapt at creating wealth, don’t you think Sims would have taken a hiatus and created some of his own…..as to being firmly attached to the taxpayers tit his whole career???????

See, you know what annoys me about bullshit like yours, is that you are so grounded in fiction that you can’t make a contribution to the debate… even when there is a legitimate ideological difference to debate.

It’s a shame, because the guy you said can’t turn on his own computer probably already read your comment. You had a chance to speak directly to him, and instead, you just chose to toss insults. Too bad.

On second thought, you wouldn’t be pissed. The UN is the latest Democratic Refuge Organization! Didn’t John “Ketchup-Man” Kerry say he would go to the UN for approval of wiping his ass… err… American Foreign Policy approvals when he was running for prez?

Heard moonbat woman on radio a while ago suggesting that poverty could be eliminated if gummint printed more 20 dollar bills and fewer one dollar bills. She couldn’t understand why those mean spirited publicans insisted on printing all those one dollar bills. She was serious…

MTR You ask in one breath for a discussion of the ethics of tax policy and in the next for a practical examination of how some tax policy or other “generates wealth.”

I’ll leave the ethical discussion to the philosophers here. As for “Sims idea to screw the rich by taxing success,” that seems to be your own creation. Ron Sims is an executiove, not a legislator. He creates a budget for how revenues should be spent, and advocates for those budget proposals when the legislators approve a budget of their own. In Goldy’s post, he talks about how government should spend its money, not how it shoudl obtain it.

As for telling you how that some particular plan or other “generates wealth,” you again have invented a statement that ho one has made and then ask someone to defend it as if Sims said it. Rons Sims said that government should “provide the social infrastructure and the physical infrastructure to help wealth be created.” I think that’s pretty defensible, which it probably why you shy away from asking to someone to defned THAT, and instead set up yet another poor quivering GOP straw man.

Daddy – One of my many gifts is the ability to translate democrat doublespeak into what they really mean. Anytime a guy like Sims talks about “creating wealth” it always always always means taking money from “rich” people either for some grand fucking scheme or to redistribute. There are NO exceptions to this rule. So it’s no straw man… it’s the reality lurking beneath the slick facade.

What the fuck does Ron Sims know about creating wealth? He’s been a tax consuming parasite his entire life. He has NEVER even attempted to make money by creating it. He doesn’t know the first fucking thing about it. What arrogance…. that he thinks he can be some kind of leader to do something on a grand scale that he’s never done on even a small scale. Typical elitist asshole arrogant jerk democrat…

Daddy Love, sadly MTR refuses to grasp the obvious difference between the infastructure that supports multiple paths to wealth for multiple types of people vs the devastation created by the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few psychopathic individuals…

MTR Your mental powers are apparently incredible, making it possible for you to read people’s minds and intentions. Question: How many times have you used them on Mike McGavick? Did you look him in the eye and get a sense of his soul? I heard that works really well. How about Dino Rossi? The Shark?

But when you agrue against what you claim people think instead of marshaling some reason in opposition to what they actually say or do, you make yourself look like either a self-deluding idiot or a weeny who can only knock down his own straw men. I tell you this as a friend.

Notwithstanding the right-wing dumbbasses posting here on Sims, I’ve gotta say he’s just a little too corporate welfare (and stadium) friendly for him to rank as one of my favorite politicians. His op-ed in the paper today about Seattle Center is a thinly-disguised attempt to grease the wheels for the Sonics’ demands to get bailed out on their 10-year old remodel.

re 31: Mark the Redneck: You need to find out about the labor laws passed in 1937 which enabled the labor movement to move forward and succeed. These laws covered fair bargaining, labor organizing, and illegal union busting. These laws exist to this day. They have just not been enforced since the days of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980’s.

A good primer for you on some actual factual details on this issue would be Dick Meister’s article, “Ronald Reagan’s War on Labor”, which is available on line.

The crux of my unassailable argument is this: Your contention, MTR, is that the money taxeed from rich people is their money and should not be taxed.

Fine. That’s a stupid argument , but I’ll accept it for the sake of argument. Since the profits of big business have been based in large part by their illegal suppression of wages by knowingly disobeying rhe law, they therefore owe us the difference.

DADDY LOVE IS THIS THE SAME RON SIMMS WHO SPENT 2 BILLION OF THE PEOPLES MONEY ON A TRANSIT SYSTEM THATS OVERFUNDED NOW HE WANTS MORE BUSES.IM FOR BUSES ONE THAT TAKES HIS FAT ASS TO NEW ORLEANS.OH THATS RIGHT THEY DONT HAVE ANY MONEY TO SPEND.YOU ASSHOLES ELECTED HIM THATS NOT SAYING MUCH FOR YOUR SIDE.HE IS A FAT ASS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSER.

anonymous – do you have citations for your assumptions and contentions that ‘the profits of big business have been based in large part by their illegal suppression of wages by knowingly disobeying rhe law, they therefore owe us the difference.’?

timman – One thing about moonbats… they have NFI how wealth is actually created. I’ve come to the conclusion that they really and truly think that all rich people inherited money like The Swimmer or married it like Lurch. It doesn’t even occurs to them that most rich people got that way by being smart, working hard and investing wisely.

We’ll never break them of this belief. Because for them to admit the truth, they also have to admit that the real reason their own lives are so miserable is through their own stupid choices. And they just don’t have the character to confront that.

This was a gem.. “Ron Sims, the county executive in Washington state’s King County, believes government’s job is “to help create wealth more efficiently.” That view comes naturally to a leader of the entrepreneurial Seattle region, which has improved the nation’s experience of everything from technology to coffee”

HA…like Sims didn’t stumble into his crummy job and only by coincidence even knows who Gates, Bezos et al are..

“most rich people got that way by being smart, working hard and investing wisely”

Of course, it might depend on your defintions of “rich,” “working,” “hard,” “investing,” and “wisely,” but it seems that for most of the richest of us all, that just plain ain’t true. Mark, you may disagree, but I think that turning a $500 million inheritance into a few billion is EASIER than trying to turn $36,000 a year into enough to buy a decent funeral.

An analysis of the 1997 Forbes 400 list called “Born on Third Base” showed that: 42% were Born on Home Plate — inherited sufficient wealth to rank among the Forbes 400. This percentage is higher than that listed by Forbes for inheritors. The reason: Forbes listed as “self-made” people who actually inherited substantial sums or property and then later built that stake into a greater fortune. One example is Philip Anschutz (1997 net worth: $5.2 billion) who is listed as “self-made” even though he inherited a $500-million oil and gas field.

6% were Born on Third Base — inherited substantial wealth in excess of $50 million or a large and prosperous company and grew this initial fortune into membership in the Forbes 400.

7% were Born on Second Base — inherited a medium-sized business or wealth of more than $1 million or received substantial start-up capital for a business from a family member.

14% were Born on First Base — biography indicates wealthy or upper-class background that was to our knowledge less than $1 million, or received some start-up capital from a family member. Due to the study team’s conservative coding rule, it is likely that some of those listed as born on first base actually belong on second or third base.

31% were Born in the Batter’s Box — individuals and families whose parents did not have great wealth or own a business with more than a few employees.

Keeping with the baseball rule that “the tie goes to the runner,” the study team gave list members the benefit of the doubt. For example, if researchers couldn’t be sure whether a member belonged on second or third base, they assigned him to second base.

That doesn’t even take into account the OTHER advantages to being born into wealth such as private schools, social and business connections, legacy access to elite colleges, Daddy pulling strings to keep you out of the draft, and so on. No one born poor will ever have those advantages handed to them like the children of wealth.

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